11/19/10

1,000 Nights of Live Music, at Baine's.

Although a relatively "new" business for historic, small town Appomattox, Baine's Books and Coffee quickly became a community fixture, where you can walk in, welcomed in the morning light streaming through the windows to discover a new book, curl up near the fireplace with hot coffee, meet a good friend over quiche for lunch, or spend the evening listening to great local music, supported and showcased thanks to the owners' love of great music, great food, great books...

From their newsletter:

1,000 Nights of Live Music!

When Deja Moo strikes the first chord on Friday, November 26 it will be the thousandth time that someone has done so here at Baine's. It is fitting that Deja Moo be the ones to do it as they played the first chord heard here on October 9, 2004. That first winter it was just me and Kat behind the bar. We carried the bookshelves to the back to make room for tables; the shelves didn't have wheels yet. Some guys from the audience hauled in the ancient and very heavy deli case one night, setting it where you see it now. People donated chairs so they'd have a place to sit. We'd be packed. People on the stairs, in the aisles, pouring out onto the street. People would happen upon us on such a night and kind of cautiously enter, wondering if they were crashing a party. One woman drove by in her beat up pick up truck three times, each time stoping and staring in. She finaly came in, walked up to the bar, looked at me with a puzzled look and said "what is this place?" She soon married the guy playing guitar.

Tom kept rolls of change in his truck glove box. If it was a busy night and I was running low, he'd throw me the key and I'd go get quarters or whatever we needed. After feeding and caffienating 80 to 100 people, we'd just lock the door behind the last person out, turn off the espresso machine and go home, exhausted and greatly satisfied, leaving the trashed store to clean up in the morning. It has been a thousand in a row. We have never cancelled. Not even an open mic. We've had audiences of a hundred and audiences of one. If a band cancelled, we called Ken, or Paul, or Pete, or Rick, or Tater. Or we just played ourselves (Me, Josh, Duane, Kat, Kristin, Justin, Rebecca, Adam). When the power went out we lit lanterns and wrote IOUs instead of taking money. We had a Christmas concert in a blizzard with a total of 4 including staff, musician, and audience. There has been a lot of great music, and a lot of fun. The finest thing about running this place has been watching people meet and form lasting friendships (and more than a few romances).
Thank you for letting us do this. It has been a blast.

Thank YOU, Baine's.
As a family we have enjoyed many afternoon hours nibbling scones and poring over new books during weekend visits. Now that the children are older we can finally haul 'em out for an evening event, and I think it would be great to christen 'em with their first evening concert being Deja Moo, at Baine's.